Working closely with an experienced Plantation car accident lawyer is always in your best interest because achieving your most complete recovery is paramount to us.
If another driver’s negligence leaves you or someone you love injured, it puts you in an especially difficult bind. In addition to enduring a physical injury – and the recovery process that goes with that – you’re facing mounting medical bills and may be experiencing considerable physical and emotional pain and suffering.
Contact Scarfone Auto Accident and Personal Injury Attorneys to request us to review your case.
Common Forms of Car Accidents
No two car accidents in Plantation are ever exactly alike, but most fall into a range of basic categories.
T-Bone Accidents
When a car barrels headlong into the side of another, forming the shape of a T in the process, it’s generally referred to as a T-bone accident. These accidents are most common in intersections and are often caused by driver distraction, impairment, or excessive speed.
The sides of the vehicles we drive are not as protected. There’s no trunk or hood to absorb the impact of a T-bone accident, and therefore occupants are more vulnerable.
Sideswipe Accidents
Sideswipe accidents generally occur when a motorist edges out of their lane and swipes the side of another driver’s vehicle, and they are often the result of distraction, exhaustion, or impairment.
Being swiped from the side out of nowhere can send the struck vehicle into another lane of oncoming traffic, making these accidents exceptionally dangerous.
Rear-End Accidents
Rear-end accidents are the most common form of traffic accidents, and they are just as dangerous as they are frequent. Rear-end accidents are often caused by motorists who are driving too fast, are distracted and not paying adequate attention to forward traffic, or both. Injuries to the neck, head, and spine are very closely associated with rear-end accidents.
Head-On Accidents
Head-on accidents are often the result of a drunk or speeding motorist who heads into traffic while traveling in the wrong direction, and they are exactly as dangerous and terrifying as you would imagine.
Rollovers
Rollovers are very often instigated by a dangerous incident that leaves the motorist whose vehicle ultimately rolls with no safe options. Rollovers put everyone on the road in an exceptionally dangerous situation.
Common Forms of Driver Negligence
Car accidents in Plantation are generally caused by one form of driver negligence or another – and are sometimes caused by a combination of dangerous driving practices.
Distraction
When motorists fail to focus on the road ahead and the vehicles all around, it greatly increases the risk that life-threatening accidents will ensue. Distractions come in many forms, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) refers to texting as the most alarming distraction of all. We spend about five seconds on the average text, and five seconds behind the wheel translates to traveling the length of a football field when driving at highway speeds, which is a lot of distraction.
Excessive speed
In order to drive safely, motorists must maintain safe speeds, which includes obeying posted speed limits when conditions are perfect and calibrating speeds downward in response to risk factors like the following:
- Bad weather
- Low visibility
- Road construction
- Heavy traffic
- Debris or an animal on the road
- Poorly maintained roads
Speeding takes top billing in far too many traffic statistics related to fatalities, and not only does speeding make accidents more likely but also makes them more likely to prove fatal.
Impairment
Drunk drivers make our roadways exceptionally dangerous. As a motorist’s blood alcohol content rises, so too do the impairments they experience, which can include all the following:
- Decreased ability to safely control the vehicle
- Inability to focus, both visually and cognitively
- A decrease in impulse control and inhibitions
Drunk driving remains a serious problem in Florida and throughout the nation.
Exhaustion
Drowsy driving can lead to some of the same problems that are caused by drunk driving and is considered a serious safety concern on our roadways. To complicate things further, many motorists fail to recognize the impact that too little sleep can have on their ability to drive safely.
Aggression
Aggressive drivers do not let something as minor as safety slow them down and often engage in more than one form of dangerous driving during any given outing. Consider the following hallmarks of aggressive driving:
- Driving far too close to the forward vehicle – known as tailgating
- Speeding excessively
- Zipping in and out of traffic
- Changing lanes without concern for what is happening on the road
- Passing dangerously
- Refusing to yield the right-of-way
- Attempting to engage other motorists via taunts, gestures, or even physical threats – such as by tapping their vehicles
When you see an aggressive motorist on the road, allow them all the space you can and alert the authorities once it is safe to do so – the risk is too great to ignore.
The Losses You Experience
A car accident that was caused by another driver’s negligence can leave you facing immense physical, financial, and emotional losses that should not be minimized or ignored. A collision with an uninsured motorist creates more uncertainty about how you’ll recover the damages from your accident.
Property Damage
Depending upon how serious the damage is to your vehicle, it may or may not be totaled, but you can expect considerable financial losses for even a relatively minor accident. Your property damage extends to the contents of your car.
Medical Bills
The medical expenses you face from a car accident can be overwhelming, and they may show no signs of stopping anytime soon. Common medical expenses after a car accident include:
- Emergency care
- Surgical care
- Treatment and care from doctors and specialists
- Follow-up care
- Pain management, which can include chiropractic care and other forms of non-medicinal treatments
- Medical treatments, tests, and procedures
- Prescription medications
- Physical therapy and occupational therapy
- Rehabilitation
- Home health care
A serious injury can lead to complications and secondary medical concerns that require ongoing healthcare needs.
Lost Wages
While you attend to your recovery, you may be off the job, and with that, you’re likely to experience decreased earnings while your medical bills continue to mount. If your ability to continue earning at the same level or to continue advancing your career is thwarted, the financial – and emotional – consequences can be that much more serious.
Physical and Emotional Pain and Suffering
Being injured by someone else’s wrongdoing not only disrupts your life but can also lead to serious emotional consequences that make reaching your most complete recovery that much more challenging. Enduring physical and psychological pain tends to be both exhausting and disheartening.
Some of the forms that emotional pain and suffering often take include:
- Severe mood swings
- Difficulty concentrating
- Accident flashbacks
- Fear of getting back behind the wheel
- Sleep disturbances that can include nightmares or night terrors
- Increased anxiety
- Signs of depression
- Self-isolation
Your losses will be unique to you and your accident, but a dedicated Plantation car accident attorney will help to ensure that all of yours are well represented in your strong car accident claim.
Contact a Skilled Plantation, Florida Car Accident Lawyer Today
If you have been injured by another driver’s negligence, you face a difficult path forward toward recovery, but professional legal counsel can help immensely.
Rocco Scarfone leads the Scarfone Auto Accident and Personal Injury Attorneys in Plantation, Florida, and is a respected car accident attorney. He dedicates his practice to helping clients like you recover on their total losses – in pursuit of their most complete recoveries.
Our legal team is on your side and here to help, so pick up the phone and call Scarfone! Dial 561-609-1200 or contact us online for more information about what we can do for you today.